Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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LAND USE

Significant proportions of the Basin's area are comprised of agriculture (66.7%) and native forest (31.9%). There are relatively smaller water (0.8%) and urban areas (0.2%) (table 1.3).

1.3 Land use - Murray-Darling Basin - 2008
		Area	Proportion of total area
		km2	%
Agriculture(a)		706 045	66.7
Forests and plantations
	Native forest	338 023	31.9
	Plantation forest	3 567	0.3
	Total	341 590	32.3
Urban		1 792	0.2
Water		8 076	0.8
Bare ground		1 004	0.1
Total area(b)		1 058 549	100.0
(a) Agricultural area does not equal the area from the 2005-06 Agricultural Census due to differences in concepts, methods and sources.
(b) Components may not add to total MDB area due to rounding. The total area is calculated independently from the land use category areas.
Source: Bureau of Rural Sciences 2008, Rural Water, viewed 9 July 2008, http://adl.brs.gov.au/water2010/index.phtml

Bureau of Rural Sciences (BRS) modelling shows that almost 67% of the MDB is used for agricultural purposes (growing crops and pasture), as shown in table 1.3. The ABS 2005-06 Agricultural Census found that 84% of land in the MDB was owned by businesses engaged in agriculture. This shows that some parts of agricultural holdings were not necessarily used for growing crops or pasture.

In 2005-06, the MDB contained 888,000 square kilometres of agricultural holdings as reported by farmers in the ABS Agricultural Census (table 1.4). This was 20% of total land held by Australian agricultural holdings. Most agricultural area in the MDB is located in New South Wales (512,136 km²) and Queensland (234,213 km²). While South Australia has the smallest area of land in the MDB when compared with the other MDB states, more of this land is held as agricultural holdings (95%).

1.4 Distribution of agricultural area - 2005-06
		Agricultural land area(a)	Total land area	Agricultural area as a proportion of total area
		km2	km2	%
Murray-Darling Basin
	New South Wales	512 136	597 926	86
	Victoria	75 929	129 761	59
	Queensland	234 213	259 313	90
	South Australia	65 549	69 216	95
	Australian Capital Territory	449	2 354	19
	Total(b)	888 277	1 058 549	84
Balance of Australia		3 460 972	6 614 096	52
Australia(b)		4 349 248	7 672 645	57
(a) Represents agricultural area of holding reported by farmers in the ABS Agricultural Census 2005-06.
(b) Components may not add to total due to rounding.
Source: BRS data available on request, 2008; ABS data available on request, ABS Agricultural Census, 2005-06

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